


how it started

by kurojiri



Series: Iron Man Bingo 2019 Fills [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awkward Tony Stark, Card Games, College, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Howard Stark Mentioned - Freeform, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Iron Man Bingo 2019, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Jarvis couple mentioned, Maria Stark Mentioned, Nervousness, New Friendships, Roommates, Tony Stark-centric, UNO, becoming friends, starting college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 22:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17948081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurojiri/pseuds/kurojiri
Summary: Nothing said like getting to know someone than playing a game with them.





	how it started

**Author's Note:**

> You what the world needs, more gen fics. They are fun to read and write. Anyways, here I am trying to get bingo and blackout my card before the deadline in March. Still crossing my fingers that I'll accomplish it.
> 
> Square Fill: Uno

It started when Tony Stark moved into his shared dorm room. A few hours of awkwardly unpacking the essentials and having to go through another span of minutes bracing himself of sharing a room with a stranger. It wouldn’t be like his old school, where he had been living with someone his age, this person would four to five years older than him at minimum.   
  
Someone that would most likely treat him like a whiny spoiled rich kid. Or try to get in his good graces if he remembered what was Tony's last name. MIT had been very competitive for the rest of the student body, whereas, it had always been a place that Tony had often been told to join from the expectations from the world as well, for him desperately trying to be less a disappointment in his father's eyes. It had been a fun trip, really exciting, as he tucked in some of his school supplies inside his drawer while simultaneously listening for the door to reopen. It had been a day.   
  
From saying goodbye again to his mom, to having his father yapping and scolding everything Tony did in between. Very helpful, inspiring even. God, it had been a nightmare to have been still a kid but still be presented as something too valuable that he couldn’t slack off at all. His father’s own tone had implied that, when he had already highly recommended to which classes Tony should concentrate on his first semester and year, as he already knew some of the professors in campus. He couldn’t really escape his own hell that his father preserved since his conception.   
  
That much had stumped Tony since he thought maybe he could breathe away from him in college. It had been a stupid dream, since logically and realistically he knew his grades would have always been delivered to him in some fashion. A word and rumor would follow suit too if Tony trashed himself. He didn’t exactly permit himself into experimenting fully yet, as he was still too young for some people to invite him. That and also that when he had gone to some parties, he still had a road to venture carefully as he had not been a complete virgin to strong drinks here and there. To know how it felt to let go with blasting music. He hadn’t been that reckless like his father thought, not yet.   
  
But when the days came when he did shit like this, to personally send him off to MIT, and have a whole half day of striping Tony’s confidence, he wanted to lose more of himself from the bottle. But he couldn’t fully dive off when he remembered the few times, he caught his mom’s tearless face. Of Jarvis, the man that practically raised him give him his silent disapproving glance while his father yelled at him like always. (It had always hurt more, stung his heart, when it had been the Jarvis couple to be disappointed at his behavior.)   
  
He didn’t want to lose his cool before his roommate came, but with his father still riling him up Tony couldn’t help but hold his grunt between his teeth. To clench his fists before trying to count to ten to calm himself. He had been at number seven when the door opened.   
  
He stayed clear from the door, as a small band of a family bustled in. Tony knew he could be very awkward, painfully out of sorts when he was surrounded by new people. He did his best to let them have their heartfelt goodbyes by leaving the room to get a snack by the campus store that had been very close to their dorm. He took the stairs too, to find spare minutes of casually getting into character as a college student. (It didn’t feel all that different from his last school; he was still alone with few universal trade stories to connect with others.)   
  
“Uno?”   
  
Tony was pretty sure that his roommate thought he was one of those rich pretentious kids with how he looked lost when he had been presented by a mundane game. As his roommate took out a plain deck of cards out, Tony still couldn’t help but see he didn’t exactly recognize them or the actual purpose of them. Sure, he had experience with few board games and poker, but Uno, not so much. He hadn't ever come across towards a group that actively asked him to play with them. Tony was essentially out of the loop with his peers then, and definitely now.   
  
His roommate, James, which the name still didn’t feel right to call him, had been a nice guy. Freshly turning eighteen in a couple of weeks, and someone that had a big brother air to him. It still had been a struggle to lace his word together when he had entered their room later that day. He could have been taking pity for being roomed up with a pipsqueak the way he had been careful with Tony. With the card game being something like a peace offering that had also would establish underline dominance of who had the power in the room. He really wouldn’t have been shocked for that development.   
  
“Yeah, have you played it before?”   
  
“No.”   
  
His roommate still kept the nice guy act when he smiled at him. He did explain it, had set it up when Tony didn’t discourage him from shuffling the cards. It had been slow going, of Tony replaying the rules inside his head, of having someone so patient with him that he reminded Tony of talking to someone who was like preschool teacher or an old nurse. A funny one too when he didn’t mind Tony’s curses and jokes. It had been easier, smoother than he had ever experienced. They just clicked.   
  
Like when Tony first fell in love with science and math. He could understand that with each round, he relaxed more. Had learned more about Rhodey and his family.   
  
“ _Rhodey_?”   
  
“Yeah.” Tony had slipped into a cheeky grin, “I think it suits you more than James.”   
  
His roommate, now dubbed Rhodey laughed out loud. “Okay, okay I guess I can dig it.”


End file.
